Since the PureMVC Pipes Utility was released I have been trying to find the best and most comfortable way for me to load and unload Modules in the main Shell application. A couple of things pertinent to my method of development: + Looking at the kind of builds that I would utilise the MultiCore framework, most would load multiple single instances of modules. + I prefer to reference as little of the framework or Pipe logic as possible in the main application Shell and defer this to the Application Mediator. + I want the code structured in a manner that adding future modules will take the minimum time possible.

With these points in mind I opted for (a) the IModuleInfo as the handle for the modules and (b) the ModuleManager for loading and unloading of the modules. Heres how: Read on →

For a while now when I have a new ColdFusion Flex scenario set up and need to do a quick check on connectivity I use the cool app provided by Kyle Quevillon available here. Thing is over time I noticed more and more people hitting the a problem with the basic connectivity of Flex and ColdFusion. Also if tweaks are needed for either the RemoteObject source url or the actual cfc itself, it can become a real pain going back into Flex, retyping in new values, rebuilding and finally uploading to the remote server (if not testing locally obviously).

Read on →

eduFire is a recent client of mine and I was involved in building a small flash app for testing audio and video settings through the Flash Player and alongside Stefan helped with the text and video chat application itself. Looking now at how this company has grown is astounding, they have more than 500 tutors who have trained students in more than 900 hours of one-to-one tutoring sessions (article). This is a brilliant way to learn and totally utilises the capabilities of Flash and Flash Media Server. Well worth checking out. In the mean time if your interested in video integration and real time collaboration be sure to visit muchosmedia.

For those who prefer to use SWF Object for wrapping their swf into a HTML page as opposed to the standard generated HTML wrapper in Flex Builder, Oleg has built a wicked SWF Object template now updated for version 2.1. This is top notch, and now supports HistoryManager and DeepLinking, a definite must see:

OlegFlex

I had a DataGrid in Flex which I wanted to display information from 3 different tables in my MySQL database using a ColdFusion query.

First attempt I tried using Joins etc in MySQL to get all the data and had two problems (1) the column names in the tables were the same i.e. id, company_id, etc and (2) the query data was duplicating the results in the tables. For example if I had 3 records in table 1 and only 1 record in table 2, table 2 would duplicate its records to match the amount returned from table 1?

I am no expert in MySQL but tripping around I could find no quick solution here (except for issue (1) which I solved by using column name aliases in the SELECT statement i.e. image_table.id as imgid).

Read on →

I hear the whispers around the town muttering about problems handling communications between Flex and ColdFusion via RemoteObjects. Mutterings such as, is there a more efficient method to handle error reporting, message queing, authentication failures, authorisation failures, server availability, custom user interactions? The answer is in WormHole!!!

Check this bad boy out, solution to your woes!

wormhole

Wormhole is a Messaging Manager which provides value added functionality on top of Remote Object calls between a Flex client and a ColdFusion server. Wormhole was written to encapsulate the management of Remote Object calls, in particular, the handling of errors and user authentication into a simple to re-use library.

I had an error thrown in Flex recently which was Property type not found on ’ A Class Object ’ and there is no default value.. In a nut shell I had an ArrayCollection of Value Objects and amongst them was one particular Object I wanted removing from the ArrayCollection ready for storage. I have defined this Object above as ‘ A Class Object’, and this particular class was different to the rest as I had not defined a ‘type’ property.

The way to tackle this is highlight below. Read on →

My latest tutorial for WebDesigner is out now and is an article on how to build an AIR contact manager (mac os x address book style) application utilising an SQLite database! Check stores near you :) or online using the above link!

AIR contact manager

UPDATE

Webdesignermag have now made these tutorials available online (I have just noticed myself):

Part One Part Two

I have recently finally got round to working on a flex project using the all new 64 bit coldfusion beast on my mac. Had a slight problem with the ol’ connectivity between Flex and CF though so I whipped out my standard test application and that didnt work either….? Now this got weird cos when I did the standard flex2gateway url check it worked fine, the only thing that was different here in my approach was the new Flex Project builder screen for ColdFusion. My error output showed trouble with http://localhost/QueryCFC/flex2gateway, hold on a minute?!? So a little google work and the solution was found here @ CFWTF, specifically this part:

…as far as I can tell, that magic url always needs to be http://yourdomain.com/flex2gateway, anything you put in this field will cause that call to fail, and in your flex app you’ll get something like Channel.Connect.Failed error NetConnection.Call.Failed: HTTP: Status 405:

Ahhhhh, so the solution was to LEAVE THE CONTEXT ROOT FIELD BLANK!